I LOVE some of the post here !!!!

you guys obviously had some fun with this one...

ford off camber by design to protect sleepng drivers, road grade,
these are GOOD !!! and wht about the one that if you travel east it will pull to the right cuz that's toward the gulf waters ... or just having a little fun here

what about the prevailing winds, might have a slight impact on our big slab sided trucks...

not being a smart A$$ here - just trying to help cuz I've had this on more than one manufacturers vehicle --- it's more the parts changer at the shop than the vehicle - always said a good mechanic is more important than a good doctor :-)

turned rotors on these bug beast usually only help for a short while...
and once they are "cut in" and cut in the pads, the damage is done...
look into replacement rotors and check the calipers on the side AWAY from the pull direction... it's probably not grabbing as well as the other side...

and MOST importantly - torque the nuts evenly and equally to 145 - 155 ft lbs...

most shops will hammer one nut down to about 230, move to the next nut and hammer it down... etc.. etc...

this would break my back too... the right way to do it is a little on each nut in a star pattern until even then increase the torque a bit around the star again until you hit your target torque...

good luck !

 

My '01 SC SB 4x4, with 15K and the stock brakes can pull left sometimes, usually after driving on long trips on the highway...

I take it to a big parking lot, and slam on the brakes a bunch of times, getting the ABS to really pulse the calipers a lot.

Then, it's gone.

I theorize that one of the pistons in the right caliper are hanging up, giving only 50% of the braking power on that side, and beating the snot out of it gets it loose again. Or the slides on the right caliper are hanging up and the caliper is not clamping as well as the left.

Brake temperature doesn't seem to do anything to loosen it up, but vibration and a general beating do...

 

7.3 excusion did it under hard braking. It still does it now that my in-laws own it. I think it is a problem with the wrong pad composition. I had this problem also on my 95 dodge truck and no one could fix it. I finally got a straight answer from a friend of a friend who worked for chrysler. They had to hard of a pad composition which would take to make heat to work right but would glaze over the rotors causing the pull when they finally hooked up. I turned the rotors and installed the Nascar brand pads and never had a problem again. Apperantly the Nascar pads are of a saofter compound and work perfect, and no they don't wear out quicker than they should.

 

My 99 PSD 4x4 has the same problem my uncle worked in brakes for his life and is puzzled, the problem truck pulls left only after a little driving and then it wont do it for a while, I beleive that ford created a problem with the brake line T-off it goes to the left (drivers) side first then over to the pasenger's side so infact the drivers side would have a little more pressureat first causeing a slight pull, and more than slight pull if you have bigger than stock tires.
As for ABS I dont know if this is ture on them but tho others this is my only solution... That sounds good, please correct me or let me know the better correct answer if there is one!

JT

 

We always seem to forget that rear brakes can cause a vehicle to pull to one side or the other. Rear drum brakes sometimes do not self-adjust very well which will cause a pull.

If everything else looks good, tires or wheels are another possibility. Swapping wheels side to side is an easy way to troubleshoot this.

I've been lucky (so far), no pulls, shudder or pedal pulsations in 115K miles even with a lift. Brakes and rotors were done at 80K and standard parts used.

Lou Braun

 

Take it for what its worth...it's a little bit of a story but here goes. Ever since they day I bought my truck I thought the brakes stunk. 10,000 miles later, warped rotors. Fixed under warrenty, new rotors plus pads. Got the truck back, sometimes would pull really bad when I hit the brakes. I let it go and it eventully went away but every so often I would get a pull upon braking. 21,000 miles, warped rotors again. I decide to turn the rotors myself and put some carbon metallic pads on the front. Now the truck changes lanes when I brake. Had to be somwhere, drove about 300 miles like that. Brought it to the dealer at my destination, they changed the pads on the truck again. Kinda pulled a little bit but worked itself out again in a few miles. Keep in mind that I put carbon metallic pads on the front and the fact that they actully work amplified the problem. Truck went to the dealer twice for brake problems, the only thing in common is that they compressed the calipers to do the pads. Thats when the pulling problems started is when the brakes were done. I did have an occasional pull at times remember. As far as the crappy brakes go. At 34,000 I finally had enough and decided to do what I should have done myself, fix it right. Rear pads kinda felt weak since day one so on a whim I changed them to carbon metallic pads. Brakes never felt better till a couple of days later. I flushed the brake system and put new fluid in. Now the brakes are great and i have not had a single pulling issue since I flushed the system. My thoughts on my particular problem are this. My truck had air in the lines causing it to do funky stuff and/or had bad brake fluid which I highly doubt. My pulling problems started both time's the brakes were done and the calipers compressed so take it for whats its worth

 

BTW rear brakes can cause a vehicle to pull but if the steering wheel turns upon braking it is a front brake problem

 

I just installed new front pads, new front brake hoses, new calipers, turned the rotors, packed the wheel bearings, and bled/flushed all the old brake fluid on my 97 250 PSD. It started pulling right during braking as soon as I left the driveway. I went back and made sure the calipers were sliding correctly and everything was lubed/installed properly, and it still pulled right . I then noticed a piece of metal imbedded in the front right tire, but the tire didn't look low on air as it sat. I checked the air pressure and it was very low at 35psi. I filled it up and waa laa, no more pull. I'm not saying low air pressure is the cure all, but in my particular case, it fixed the problem.

I've recently replaced all my tires and she's tracking straight.

 

Trucks that pull to the left is caused by 1 simple issue. The person with the beer belly behind the wheel. When you have a passenger in the truck, does it still pull left? no.. see

 

HMMMM Greg 250.....I read a lot of posts about brakes and rotor problems. Mine have always worked fine, til I just changed ball joints and a couple of days later, pulsation, shimmy and pulling to one side. When I did the joints, I compressed the calipers for reinstall. Now I have it apart replacing rotors and pads. Neither side is wearing evenly now...just thought it was time but the pads are fine, sliders work well also. You can definitly see some abnormal wear signs so something is going on. I don't see how air can enter during compression but there may be a link there. I'm gonna put it back together tonite then run it for a few days, if it acts up, I'll bleed it. Thx 4 the info.

 

It's not that air can enter during compression but if it was there to begin with strange things will happen. In a standerd brake system...non ABS there are only so many things that can happen. When you enter a ABS system with dump valves, check valves...bla bla bla, a simple thing like air in the brakes can really screw you up.

 

I hear you, and it almost makes sense. They worked fine before with no vibration or pull but thinking back now, they seemed mushey from early on, almost like there was air in there somewhere. I'll tell you what is scary though is that once you have had that rotor off, the next time you remove the caliper the whole deal practically falls off, rotor and all. Which means it is really critical to properly torque the calipers and wheels.

 

I too have had intermittent pulling to the left when braking - I beat the crap out of the brakes in a parking lot, and it goes away for a long time.

I theorize that one of the two pistons in the right caliper is hanging up. Reduced mechanical force on the pads on the right, truck pulls to the left.

Since you mention you compressed the calipers, I wonder if one of the pistons is wedged?

 

My vote's on the caliper also. We had a fleet of mid to late 90's in the USAF. All LWB, CC, 4X4, running 351M. We had several go in for caliper replacement and even had 2 catch fire from the heat buildup of the pads. Be careful out there.

 

caliper, also check for air in the lines. Do a full fluid flush and bleed good. If that doesn't get it, replace the calipers..